The only people who aren’t penalized for promoting diversity at work are white men

If we’re ever going to reach gender equality, it may have to be white men who lead the charge. New research shows that managers are actively penalized for promoting diversity in the workforce, regardless of gender or race—unless they are white men.

To find out why 85% of C-level leadership positions at top companies are filled by white men, and why that number seems to be holding, David Hekman from the University of Colorado Boulder led a team of management researchers in a study that evaluated over 350 executives on how well they tried to improve the diversity of their teams.

In their study, published in the Academy of Management Journal (subscription), Hekman and his team evaluated the managers on their “diversity-valuing behaviors,” like hiring women and minorities, and respecting other cultures, religions, genders, based on peer reviews of their subjects.

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About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.